The world is full of sensor devices for detecting physical phenomenon and for providing a signal in response to the phenomenon. For example, a thermometer converts the physical condition temperature into a visual signal, a height of mercury in a glass column. Another example of a temperature-sensing device is a thermocouple which converts the physical condition temperature into an electrical signal. To be useful the sensor signal has to be understood to correspond with a particular physical phenomenon. For example, the thermometer has lines on the glass column to indicate the degrees of temperature. The lines, of course, have to be in the correct locations on the glass column to have meaning, and the process by which the lines are properly located is known as calibration. During calibration the sensor is subjected to a known physical condition or conditions and its response is observed. Observing the response of the sensor to the known conditions allows one to predict the sensor response for a wide range of conditions.
Pressure sensors are devices that provide a signal indicative of pressure, for example, the amount of air pressure within a tire. As with other types of sensors, pressure sensors require calibration to be useful. A specific kind of pressure sensor known as a piezoresistive pressure sensor provides a voltage signal indicative of a sensed pressure. The piezoresistive pressure sensor poses a number of problems in application. For example, the piezoresistive sensing element provides a relatively low level voltage signal. In addition, the piezoresistive sensing element may provide a signal that is sensitive to changing temperature and that does not change linearly with changing pressure. Moreover, the signal voltage characteristic from one sensing element to another sensing element may not be consistent. Therefore, special signal conditioning circuitry is required for a sensor product that provides a high level sensor output that is sufficiently accurate across a wide range of operating temperatures and pressures. Importantly, the device has to be capable of mass production, at low cost and with a high degree of part-to-part repeatability.
Most low cost signal conditioning approaches use analog circuits that are adjusted during a calibration process, typically during manufacture of the sensor. For example, it is known to use amplifier circuits coupled to resistor networks. In one such application, the resistor network includes a number of resistive elements coupled by fusible links. Though limited in the degree of adjustment available, various resistive values may be established for providing an acceptable output from the amplifier network. In another application, the resistor network includes laser trimmable resistive elements. During a calibration process, the resistive elements are trimmed using a laser to achieve the correct resistive. values to provide an acceptable output from the amplifier network. In either application access to the circuit may be required during processing in order to fuse links and/or laser trim components. Hence manufacturing processing options are limited. Also, in certain applications offset, sensitivity and linearity may be difficult to compensate for independently. Furthermore, processing activities following calibration may introduce error that can not be corrected in the final product. And, the laser trim process requires expensive processing hardware and suffers increased cycle time.
An alternative design provides for electronic calibration of the sensing element. Sensors adapted for electronic calibration have included a microprocessor coupled to the sensor element via suitable signal conditioning circuitry and to a memory in which a calibration method is retained. During processing, the sensing element is tested under various known operating conditions. Calibration values are established and stored in the memory. In operation, the microprocessor in conjunction with the method and calibration values operates to provide a sensor output. Unfortunately, the microprocessor based approach is cost prohibitive and too physically large for a self-contained sensor device of the type typically found in automotive and similar applications. Other processing technologies, such as digital signal processors (DSPs), have not found successful implementation in low cost mass produced sensors owing to the high cost and complexity of general purpose DSP systems. For example, these solutions typically require a random-access memory (RAM) storage block and an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) consisting of a parallel multiplier, a parallel adder and associated circuitry. These elements are too large for cost effective implementation.
Therefore, there remains a need for a cost effective electronically calibrated sensing device. The preferred device will overcome processing limitations associated with fusing links and/or laser trimming components and will be computationally efficient so as to eliminate the need for expensive and large microprocessor components.